FeMMuseTech event hosted by University of East London

It was a pleasure to be asked to talk about my work and the role of women in music technology.. really great event, many thanks to Jo Thomas for hosting. If you are a female looking fora  chance to have your voice heard about women in a very male dominated world then hook up with them on facebook here or on twitter here

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FeMMuseTech Research Discussion and Performance Event

This discussion aims to explore the roles of political body,activism,technology ,gender and disability. Ju Gosling will show her work as a disabled artist . Georgina Brett will perform her work live.

Music Performance Networking / Lunch 
Introduction Dr Jo Thomas 
Composer,

Dr Ju Gosling 
Disabled artist, wellcome fellow, sound performance and activism 

Workshop Performance Georgina Brett 
Music improvisor , electronic sound artist.
Music / Networking / Coffee

The Event is Supported UEL Athena Swan and the University of East London.

Dr Ju Gosling
Dr Ju Gosling is an active disabled artist. She is a welcome trust fellow who works with performance, text and sound. Ju works largely within the theories and traditions of the Disability Arts movement. In 2012 Ju directed the Together 2012 free Disability Arts and Human Rights Festival as a London 2012 Local Leader on behalf of the UK Disabled Peoples Council . The festival took place in the Host Borough of Newham to celebrate the Paralympics (29 August-9 September 2012)

Georgina Brett
Georgina Brett is a composer and founder of the organization Tuesday’s Post, a successful community music group in London.
She creates her music from her own voice using low and high technology and Her music sounds like instant choirs of sound, which are often hypnotic in style.

Dr Jo Thomas
Dr Jo Thomas is a senior music academic at the University of East London. She is a composer working with Digital Sound. In 2012 she won the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Digital Music’s and Sound Art for her work Crystal Sounds of a Synchrotron.She has worked alongside a number of artists including Maria Chavez Lee Gamble and SquarePusher. She works with a combination of electrotronic music, live improvisation and sound instillation. Current work includes a new 16 channel work for Frequencies Digital Arts Festival in Lincoln based around the celebration of the Magna Carter, FeMM useTech, a Civil Engagement project supported by The University of East London supporting and increasing the visibility of women in Stratford working with Music Technology.

Gemma Whitfield
Gemma Whitfield is third year music student from London. She recently won the e factor at the University of East London to design and establish her own company Womma. She produces and and a regular contributor to LBGT Queerhouse Radio at the RoundHouse London. Gemma is a research assistant for FeMMusetech at the University of East London.

Qualial Coalition EP Release March 2015

Qualial Coalition by Georgina Brett

Where is your focus? (musically and visually)
I have been waiting for years to place these two long movie clips with music, although I didn’t imagine I might overlay them together.
They were shot within days of each other in the same town..

The static “being” clip is of a sunset.
There had been a storm earlier in the day, so the clouds were unusually visceral and textured. I adore that over time they gradually disperse, as the sun bursts through underneath.

The moving “doing” clip is of walking.
I walked a good kilometre from the beach to the house I was staying at.. I pointed the camera looking down at the ground, hoping to capture as little as possible in the camera’s field of vision, but that whatever I did capture was a perfect accident. The idea that you can be somewhere utterly beautiful and stunning but that you are in such a depressive state that all you can do is look at the ground, has resonated with me for many years, and in this clip i found a way to visualise it.. The viewer gets an idea that this is not just any path, but one by the sea, by the accidental things you see: flip-flop, bicycles etc.

Overlaying these two movies creates an interesting phenomenon. The moving of the walking creates a movement-distraction from the beauty of the static sunset. The eyes naturally following movement, following the lines of divide in the concrete slabs and various shapes of pavement.. I want to look at the sunset, but my eyes are distracted by the regular descending lines and patterns. I also fade in and out the sunset so as to mirror thought and one’s sense of distraction, the mundane so often masking the beauty of just being.

And every now and then you see a glimpse of the “now” reality, children playing, swimming, etc.. and your imagination get’s to fill in the blanks.

The music is an adaptation using the rhythm and it’s 12 permutations of Clapping Music by Steve Reich.

Within Clapping Music there is much to listen for in the interaction of the separate rhythms. In my development of the idea, I continue the thread of focus and create collages of sound. We can focus in on a multitude of separate parts of the sound. Do we listen only for the loudest part or can we strain our ears (and brains) to focus on one of the 12 rhythms present, that makes up the background?

I have always loved free rhythm, a pulse with emphasis that shifts is so liberating. We westerners have boxed and enslaved pulse, here is some listening time, to play with how we hear emphasis.. and enjoy how it makes us feel when it’s unregulated.

Always having been fascinated with phase and the shifts and uncomfortable nature of insecurity between moments of solidity in musical structures, this piece was a joy to work with.

The track is available for download on bandcamp, at a fee chosen by yourself.. or, if you feel you are not able to spare funds and want to download it, then just leave your email address.. 🙂

https://georginabrett.bandcamp.com/track/qualial-coalition

Live Voice Meditation @ The Groucho Club 10th February 2015

Strayed into the realms of 5/4, pentatonic and whole tone scales as well as some Eastern flavours, which i love.. enjoyed the constant of a drone bass using an octave pedal.. every now and then you can hear the crowd of people chatting.. ! 🙂
I always intend this type of work to be good to work to, or to meditate or do yoga to… if you try, will you let me know if it is helpful for concentration or for clearing the mind?

Kumo and Georgina Brett at London Analogue Festival 2014

London Analogue Festival 2014 was in The Bargehouse at The OXO Tower, on the South Bank in London, it took place in the Summer.. fantastic venue, an untouched, undeveloped bargehouse, enormous.. we were right in the top.. amazing textures on the walls, i am sad to this day that i didn’t manage to take photos of it inside.

finally got to release the video of Jono Podmore and I ..totally analogue equipment..
My gear? Korg SE 500 Stage Echo Tape Delay, Arp 2600 Synth, Sennheiser Hypercardioid mic, Mackie 1202VLZ
Jono’s gear? Longwave handmade Theremin, Mackie 802 VLZ 3 mixer, Mutron III+, MXR Carbon Copy, Lili 004 – handmade Ring Modulator, Filter, 2xLFO
Wonder if anyone can understand the spoken word stuff? It’s using some amusing texts, check the book titles in the youtube listing. wink emoticon !!!

Improvisation at Happenstance Gallery June 20th 2014

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SO LOVE THE DIRECTION OF THIS IMPROVISATION.. !! Perfect conditions, lovely gallery, great energy.. It all came together.. This is the direction some of my work is now heading in, it’s taken a while but finally beginning to see the wood from the trees.

 

happenstanceradio.com
happenstancegallery.com

A Hand-picked Selection of Soundfiles

There’s plenty of live performances to view on Youtube, but this can distract from the more intense work that get’s done in the studio…

Do remember to buy an album if you appreciate work. Almost all the money from a purchase on bandcamp goes to the artist.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2127826743 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=1229930317]

St Mary Aldermary in April – Bach Prelude no. 1 in C major looped.

I performed a 2 hour set of pieces relevent to this beautiful space and the Taize Songs i chose were just so pretty and I enjoyed improvising with them. I completely misjudged the time so got there in just enough time to set up. So there’s no video on this one.

Here is the clip I uploaded to Soundcloud.

Can’t say how lovely it is to sing in this beautiful church. Thanks to Jonny and Vanessa and the Host Cafe staff for having me. 🙂